Robust estimation of DOA from array data at low SNR.

•The phase-only beamformer is a low-cost approxi- mation to a DOA estimator based on the Least Absolute Deviation (LAD) criterion.•The phase-only beam- former performs well in terms of Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of its DOA estimate for a single DOA at low Signal to Noise Ratio.•The simulations indicate that the LAD-based DOA estimator and phase-only beamformer cope well with heteroscedastic noise.•The qualitative robustness of the phase-only beamformer is shown by the Empirial Influence Function.